PHOENIX--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- After six months and nearly two dozen cities, Avnet's X-fest technical sessions are complete - training more than 5,000 engineers the world over. This year's X-fest events, created by Avnet Electronics Marketing, an operating group of Avnet, Inc. (NYSE: AVT), and Xilinx, Inc. (Nasdaq: XLNX) , broke attendance records and helped engineers gain a better understanding of Xilinx's 7 series All Programmable FPGAs (field-programmable gate arrays) and All Programmable SoCs. To view a breakdown of the impact of X-fest 2012, download the infographic here.

"With each event, X-fest 2012 built incredible momentum reaching nearly 950 engineers in Beijing alone," said Tim Barber, senior vice president, design chain business development, Avnet Electronics Marketing. "The overwhelmingly positive response we received throughout this program reinforces the importance this type of training has on the world's engineering community. Avnet is committed to continuing our longstanding tradition of delivering comprehensive technical training wherever you design."

X-fest attendees were treated to a free, day-long seminar series that was fully customizable based on three unique tracks:

The FPGA Fundamentals track featured four courses aimed at common design issues both new and advanced FPGA designers face. Topics around Xilinx 28nm 7 series FPGAs included power design, optimizing memory interfaces, clocking and PCIe interface implementations.

The Applications track delved deeper into design methodologies and techniques required when designing with the Zynq™-7000 All Programmable SoC and 7 series All Programmable FPGAs. Application oriented topics included wired communications, motor control, video and real-world analog processing.

The Zynq™-7000 All Programmable SoC track provided four courses dedicated to the ARM® dual core Cortex™-A9 MPCore™ based device. Topics included an introductory overview of the Zynq-7000 device architecture, development tools overview, and software acceleration techniques.

San Jose, Calif. attendee Steve Casselman, chief technology officer at DRC Computer Corporation, had this to say about his experience at X-fest: "I'm very interested in the Zynq [device] and the peripherals, and the integration of that product is pretty remarkable. The presenters have been very good - very knowledgeable - and I'm looking forward to working with [Zynq]." Casselman also commented that Avnet and Xilinx had produced a well-coordinated event that provided him with access to knowledgeable resources and hands-on demonstration boards that fit his design needs in the near future.

In addition to the specialized training, X-fest also featured partner exhibits and hands-on demonstrations from Analog Devices, Inc., Cypress, Freescale Semiconductor, Maxim, Micron Technology, TE Connectivity, Texas Instruments (TI) and others. These exhibits gave design engineers the opportunity to interact directly with factory experts who shared insights into exciting new products and advanced technologies, and demonstrated the latest development platforms.

"X-fest has once again proven to be a great opportunity for engineers to learn how to turn Xilinx's All Programmable leadership to their own advantages for success," said Ron Sartori, director of worldwide distribution at Xilinx. "As programmable devices play an ever-increasing role in electronic systems across many markets and applications to lower bill of materials cost, decrease system power consumption and increase system performance, X-fest has become an important event on the training calendars for hundreds of thousands of engineers and system architects around the world."

While X-fest 2012 may be over, the technical training continues through Avnet's dedicated team of factory-trained field applications engineers. To view more training available from Avnet, visit www.em.avnet.com/training.

Xilinx, Inc. (Nasdaq: XLNX) is the worldwide leader of programmable logic solutions. Additional information about Xilinx is available at www.xilinx.com.

About Avnet Electronics Marketing

Avnet Electronics Marketing is an operating group of Phoenix-based Avnet, Inc. that serves electronic original equipment manufacturers (EOEMs) and electronic manufacturing services (EMS) providers in more than 70 countries, distributing electronic components from leading manufacturers and providing associated design-chain and supply-chain services. The group's website is located at www.em.avnet.com.

About Avnet, Inc.

Avnet, Inc. (NYSE:AVT), a Fortune500 company, is one of the largest distributors of electronic components, computer products and embedded technology serving customers globally. Avnet accelerates its partners' success by connecting the world's leading technology suppliers with a broad base of customers by providing cost-effective, value-added services and solutions. For the fiscal year ended June 30, 2012, Avnet generated revenue of $25.7 billion. For more information, visit www.avnet.com.